And as for a chilled Banyuls – red or white – lovely.

When La Senora and I were (a lot) younger, we once bought a very large bottle of what I can only describe as cheapo "party" wine, the sort of stuff you'd only (inadvertently) order by the carafe in a pizza parlour.
The lady behind the counter told us that, if we put the cork(*) back in, it would keep for up to a week.
La Senora and I looked at each other utterly nonplussed, the words "bollox to that" implied but unspoken.

EDIT : It's coming back to me now ... there was no cork, she actually advised us that screw tops were great because you can put the top back on and it will keep.



Not just left-over wine ... but left-over food too.
I was puzzled watching Nigel Slater describing what to do with leftover lamb ... he went to his fridge and extracted a joint of lamb of about a couple of kilos to chop up for a shepherd's pie.
Sorry Nige, if I've got any roast lamb left, it won't be enough for a shepherd's pie.

Only tried the red, in Perpignan (of course

).
I always like to try local stuff wherever I am, it's part of the point of going to places, whether in this country or abroad.
Liked it but haven't seen it here.

I have a new bottle of Booth's own-brand Manzanilla chillin' in the fridge.
I may report back on the quality later.

Quote ="cod'ead"Another blast from my past: Fernet Branca...'" Having seen the bottle occasionally but having never tried it, I googled to find some description of the taste. goargentina.about.com/od/Restaur ... Fernet.htm Would you agree with this description? ... "[iThe easiest way to explain the taste is to imagine Jägermeister without the sugar. You shoot it, immediately getting a strong hit of mouthwash - drying the mouth out, stinging the tongue." [/i Jägermeister, to me, tastes like cough medicine. I'm guessing the barkeep put the Pernod in your hangover cure to mask the taste of the Fernet Branca.

Quote ="cod'ead"Another blast from my past: Fernet Branca...'" Having seen the bottle occasionally but having never tried it, I googled to find some description of the taste. goargentina.about.com/od/Restaur ... Fernet.htm Would you agree with this description? ... "[iThe easiest way to explain the taste is to imagine Jägermeister without the sugar. You shoot it, immediately getting a strong hit of mouthwash - drying the mouth out, stinging the tongue." [/i Jägermeister, to me, tastes like cough medicine. I'm guessing the barkeep put the Pernod in your hangover cure to mask the taste of the Fernet Branca.

There is no making the taste of Fernet, it can be minimised but not masked. There's definitely liquorice in there, the concoction that I was given in Spain was as close to Owbridge's Cough Mixture as I can recall

Probably the foulest tasting beverage I ever tasted was an Albanian plum brandy that someone left at mine after a party. Sliwowica it wasn't. The tiniest sip would leave an aftertaste that lingered, to the point where a belch or fart, even hours later, brought back the taste.

We had a barbecue once and some latecomers arrived just as the coals were dying. I piled on some more charcoal and had the bright idea of pouring some of the plum brandy onto them to reignite the fire. Instead of the clean blue flame that usually accompanies such actions, black greasy smoke rose from the ashes, like burning sump oil.

I think I left that bottle in a cupboard when we eventually moved house

Popped in Morrisons earlier and found four big punnets of blackcurrants and two trays of baby plum tomatoes, all on short-date and for next to buggerall.

I'm currently (no pun intended) boiling the blackcurrants to make syrup (far better than Ribena) and the tomatoes for a pizza base

We have a (relatively new, at 10 years) French deli on our local shopping street in Hackney. Stephane, the owner, comes across as a stereotypical grouchy Frenchman – until you get to know him. When I told him that we came regularly to Collioure, his eyes glazed over in delight. I can get Banyuls from him – and also really good duck breast from the south west, from foie ducks (which have the most unbelievable layer of glorious fat). The only thing I haven't yet managed to train him to get for me is proper boudin noir, which is so, so much moister than British black pudding. I'm working on it.

We've 11 lbs of the bloody things in the freezer, I'll be making jelly and some kinda cassis type thing with them when we get back from St Ives.

Manzanilla and tapas - no match!

Pretty much been living on my mates allotment produce and from my next door neighbours poly-tunnel(?) of late.
New spuds, cabbage, carrots, onions, parsnips, purple sprouting broccolli, cucumbers, strawberries and variations of tomati.
Just as well really.
It will put me in good stead for five days of takeaway action whilst dossing at my mates in Londinium from next Thursday.

I tried boudin noir a couple of times in Martinique whilst on a trip exploring rum distilleries

, (*).
"Moister" is an understatement for that Creole version, which for all I know might be entirely different from the version you mention, I haven't had it in France-proper, the creole one was much smaller than ours, barely solid inside the casing, slightly "oozy" and the colour was like a dark beige.
But delicious nonetheless, once you'd realised that it was a similar but different dish from our black pudding.


(*) Fabulous holiday, that was.
Memories of sitting in the shade sipping a 'ti punch and watching black hummingbirds visiting blossoms on the tree beyond the veranda.

Hi Mintball hope you are enjoying the hols, what are foie ducks, ducks that are specifically bred for the liver?
I thought it was the Mulard and Toulouse duck they used for this.

I wouldn't have had a clue before last year, when we came across this.

But the breasts have a far thicker layer of fat than you'd find on, say a British duck breast, which makes complete sense if it's the breast of a duck bred for foie gras.

And thank you – we're having a great time. Love this place to bits. Just been enjoying the annual festival. And the food is wonderful.

I have discovered a delicious salad, now the figs are bursting from their skins once again.

Whisk together a dressing of wholegrain mustard, red wine vinegar, honey, garlic, salt and pepper to a paste. Slowly add good olive oil until you like the consistency and it's emulsified.


Add handfuls of rocket and spinach and half a dozen or more quartered ripe figs (peeled if you wish). Toss to cover in the dressing. Add a fistful of walnuts and chunks of goats cheese over the top.

Making it for the third time this week, tonight with steak and chips. Life's regular at the moment, but good.

You got a fig tree?

Like that recipe, sounds divine, very annoying though for people stuck with a ruddy nut allergy.

Good measures, a fist of, and a chunk of.

Personally like figs with Manchego and a little dash of olive oil, Sicilian, more pepper than most Spanish.

Mmmm, lovely ... it would go well with Serrano or Parma ham on top.

I always liked goatboy's recipes:

"cook in a hot oven for the time it takes to roll and smoke two fags"

For fans of the place (and 'fine dining'), [url=http://thevoluptuousmanifesto.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/michelin-starred-dining-under-stars.htmlwe finally found Collioure's Michelin-starred restaurant[/url.

Would you say that Collioure is rather like St. Ives but with better food?

I will say that it's improved by not being in Cornwall for starters (bear in mind I am part Cornish).



TBH, I haven't been to Cornwall at all for decades, so am not in a position to make such a comparison.

in very generalised terms, I'd say that, comparing food between the UK and France, France has much better local, small eateries (still some dismal ones – usually those aimed specifically at tourists), but I think there's a wider tradition of better food in general.

In terms of top-end restaurants, we've certainly improved in the last 20-30 years, but I do think you can struggle to find real quality at the sort of bistro end of the market. Just as a sort of anecdotal expression of this: I used to love going away for work, because it meant I had to eat out and I could find new places. Over the years though, I've been disappointed far more often than I've been delighted.

In terms of those work-related travels, the best place I've stayed (four days, IIRC, with a variety of eateries tried) was Glasgow a couple of years ago.

Having just come back from St Ives, I'd say that food on offer across Cornwall was on the whole fantastic, we never had a bad meal in the two weeks we were there, nothing "high end" just your average bistro style eateries.

I'm guessing with so much competition the bad ones go out of business and quickly.

I wasn't meaning to diss Cornwall.
Indeed, not many years ago, we started at Bath and toured Somerset, Devon and Cornwall with the express intent of eating at middle-to-high-end all the way, booking accommodation that would be near to where we planned to eat.
i.e. Food was definitely the theme.

It went very well, except once in the middle of the trip when we were totally poshed-out and needed a break in the form of something basic such as a pizza or fish and chips to avoid the hushed-waiter-and-menu ritual for an evening.
The pizza I had that night was bloody awful. Hey-ho.

In Glasgow, I loved an Indian "tapas" style place near Kelvingrove Museum.
Also tried [iThe Ubiquitous Chip[/i which was disappointing, nowhere near as good as it thought it was.